Sakana Bune: Grabbing Sushi Off A Boat

5701 Geary Blvd.
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 387-8561

It was a Sunday when Julie and I ate here with some of her family relatives. We hadn’t planned on eating anything on this particular day because it was suppose to be family day, but they ended up taking us here, a revolving sushi bar.

Admittingly, I try to avoid revolving sushi bars because they are synonymous with low quality grade sushi, however, this place wasn’t bad. I won’t go into detail everything we tried because we tried A LOT, which tends to be the nature of revolving sushi bars, but I’ll highlight some of the special and better offerings.

The costs here varied depending upon which dish you grabbed. The prices are $1.50 for the cheaper and more simple stuff to $2.95 for the higher end, more elaborate rolls. You can also order individual rolls or hand rolls off a menu if you wish not to eat from the revolving bar. The sushi in the bar rotates on boats that float on water and you grab them as they pass why you.

First, we tried some nigiri, some tuna and salmon. They weren’t the freshest in the world, but they weren’t to the point that it wasn’t edible. I say just avoid the raw stuff as there is definitely more fresh stuff elsewhere. Moving on to cut rolls, we had a cut roll that had crab meat, tempura shrimp, honey glazed walnut, topped off with avocado and a mayo sauce on top. It is basically suppose to be the hand cut roll version of honey walnut shrimp. I guess they want to cater to the Chinese community in SF. It was pretty good, minus the odd texture of walnuts inside the roll; it was too hard. I think it would probably have tasted better if they ground up the walnuts to a fine mixture and sprinkled it on top. I think the texture would have been a lot better.

I’m not a big fan of unagi, but surprisingly enough, the unagi cut rolls here were really good. The taste of eel was definitely just right and not overpowering, which leads me to believe the stock of eel they got in that morning was fresh.

Another notable roll was a california roll topped with bonito flakes, toasted sesame seeds, and some other ingredients I’m not sure about, but I’ve seen this type of seasoning in a Japanese store before…I just don’t remember the name at the moment. I knew it would be simple, but it actually tasted better than I thought!! The last notable dish here would have to be the raw oysters. I’m not much of an oyster guy, so Julie had it mostly. She told me they were super fresh, so that’s a good thing for raw oyster lovers.

As an overview, I think everything was overall pretty good. Would I recommend it though? If you were lazy to go anywhere else and you happen to be in the neighborhood and was REALLY craving sushi, go ahead and try it. However, even though it’s good, there’s nothing that stands out about this place. Everything is just done on an average to good level. Grabbing sushi off the floating boats was fun at first, but it gets old and the novelty wears off. I say I rate the place overall as average and only give it a try if you crave sushi and happen to be nearby because at least it won’t disappoint.